Riding Yorkshire's Final Steam Trains
Page 8
We are at the top of the world – away to the west stretches the beautiful green valley of Dentdale. Then we pass through Dent station – England’s highest at 1,150ft, where the owner of the holiday accomodation (the former station buildings) plans to open a fast-food outlet for train passengers who have pre-ordered their requirement at the previous calling point – into Rise Hill tunnel and over Garsdale water troughs. All around us are the Pennines – we are riding the backbone of England. We pass through Garsdale station, once known as Hawes Junction because of its NER connection across from Northallerton (via Stainmore), where in 1900 strong winds sent an engine spinning round uncontrollably on the turntable. To prevent a repetition, a stockade of vertically placed sleepers was erected around it. On Garsdale’s platform is a statue of Ruswarp, the dog whose paw print was on the petition against the line’s closure. He belonged to Graham Nuttel, a member of the Friends of the Settle-Carlisle Line, an organisation co-ordinating the fight against the line’s closure in the 1980s. The dog was found still alive guarding his owner’s body eleven weeks after his owner died whilst hill walking. Two short tunnels, Moorcock – the site of the 1910 train crash when the overnight St Pancras/Glasgow sleeping car train ran into two locomotives (signalman’s error at Garsdale) killing twelve passengers – and Shotlock Hill, precede the summit of Ais Gill itself at 1,169ft above sea level as the line crosses the watershed into the Eden Valley and into what was Westmorland. On the right Mallerstang Edge dominates the scene until, passing through Birkett tunnel, the line enters open scenery. After passing through Kirkby Stephen West yet another closed (1962) NER line, between Darlington and Tebay via Stainmore, is crossed at Smardale, its twelve-arched viaduct at 130ft once being the highest on the Midland Railways system. A short breather is taken while calling at Appleby – well known for holding Britain’s largest horse fair every June – where the connectional rails to the NER Eden Valley line are still in situ, albeit disused. We now enter the final stretch of the line with the lush green colours of the Eden Valley adorned with hamlets built out of local pink sandstone nestling in the crooks and crannies of the surrounding hills. The gradients all became downhill now, with speeds in the mid 60s and low 70s. It all had to end and after the arrival into Carlisle bang on time at 13 07 the remainder of that day was spent chasing steam south over the WCML.
Gradient profile over ‘The Long Drag’.
Map of the route (Ian Allan, Trains Annual, 1966).
Location
Time
Speed
Location
Time
Speed
Hellifield
00 00
Kirkby Stephen
50 54
70½
Long Preston
02 41
49
Ormside
58 35
62
Settle Junction
04 56
59
Appleby West
61 59
pws
Long Marton
04 41
56/60
Settle
07 28
33
New Biggin
08 03
63
Stainforth Sdgs
10 35
29½
Culgaith
09 17
67½
Helwith Bridge
16 14
30/35
Longwathby
12 24
70
Horton-in-R
19 12
28
Little Salkeld
13 42
73
Selside
24 00
29
Lazonby
16 04
68/71½
Ribblehead
28 53
30
Armathwaite
21 00
68/71½
Blea Moor
31 12
31/29
Howes Sdgs
25 38
56
Dent Head
35 52
52½/55
Cumwhinton
26 45
53
Dent
38 11
52/64
Scotby
28 07
56
Garsdale
41 36
62½
Petteril Bridge Jn
30 31
33
Ais Gill
44 44
58½
Carlisle
33 15
Mallerstang
48 04
70/74
After that day’s captures the only active Jubilee remaining in Britain that I required was Bank Hall’s (Liverpool) 45627 Sierra Leone, which, after a lot of false rumours, was eventually caught that September, just days before her withdrawal on a Blackpool/Liverpool service. By now the NER Jubilees had achieved celebrity status and whatever trains they worked were packed to the gunwales with enthusiasts and sightseers alike, creating an atmosphere more akin to rail tours. They had, rather like the pop stars of the ’60s, achieved a cult following. Cleaned at their home depots by many ‘unauthorised’ hands (MNA?), photographs of the resultant iridescent locomotives working the summer Saturday trains out of Leeds and Bradford bound for east/west/south-coast resorts and Scotland have appeared many times over the years in the railway press.
Only three Jubilees survived into the summer of ’67 and, with Achilles being withdrawn in early August, I was to enjoy just one run each with Kolhapur and Alberta – both on the 10 17 ex-Leeds (06 40 Birmingham/Glasgow). On 22 July, having earlier in the day departed from Sheffield on the 07 06 Leeds service (45428) I travelled with Kolhapur – a year to the day since my previous run. During the long wait at Leeds (the DL bringing the train from Birmingham had failed at Wath) and the glorious journey along the spine of England I had time to reflect on the past year’s events.
So much had changed since then. The Kinks, who held celebrity status amongst SR enthusiasts with their Waterloo Sunset release commemorating the end of steam on the SR, highlighted the indisputable fact that we steam enthusiasts now knew for certain our hobby was coming to an end – but within such a short timescale? As a BR employee I was fortunate enough to enjoy free or reduced-rate travel – the only thing I was short of was time. I couldn’t be everywhere at once so decisions and priorities had to be made as to where and what was most worthwhile chasing or being at. How opportune was I in being a young carefree teenager just at the ‘right’ time to catch Britain’s final steam trains. Somehow escaping the NER steam cull that October, although both being withdrawn by the first week of November, only Kolhapur survived into preservation – three other former LMR-allocated Jubilees joining her.
Having travelled with Achilles out of Sheffield and over Ais Gill during the night hours I had no photographs from those occasions. On 29 April 1967, however, whilst en route from Leeds to Carlisle, an opportunity of a shot presented itself at Skipton where I was changing trains. A resplendent 45697 Achilles rests while working an afternoon Leeds-to-Morecambe van service – the 1936 Crewe-built Jubilee being withdrawn from her home depot of Holbeck four months later.
Although most of my journeys made over the Long Drag were with NER-allocated Jubilees during 1966/67, the last occasion I travelled on a timetabled train was with a Britannia. On 29 August 1967 a relief to the Thames Clyde Express was worked by Kingmoor-allocated Britannia class 4-6-2 70004 William Shakespeare, seen awaiting her train from Glasgow. Fifty-five of these Riddles-designed 7P6Fs were built, this particular 1951-built example obtaining prestige status having worked the Golden Arrow between London and Dover for many years.
Just one further concluding visit to the ‘Long Drag’ is worth detailing. It was in the August of 1967 – the month that saw the Beatles’ All You Need Is Love knocked off the top spot by Bobbie Gentry’s Ode to Billie Joe. The final bank holiday of each year was, until 1964, the fi
rst Monday of August. Starting from 1965 it was moved to the last Monday and taking into consideration it was the final weekend of the summer services – after which a great many steam services would cease running, I had earmarked it for a four-night bash. Although the main emphasis of chasing that weekend was centred on WCML services, I visited Leeds twice, travelled over both Shap and Ais Gill and caught an ‘Adex’ into Windemere before, on the Tuesday morning, finding myself at Preston at 8 a.m. in the morning.
Having already booked it as a day’s annual leave I headed north for what I hoped was a possible steam-hauled daytime service over Ais Gill. While I had heard on the grapevine that the 09 56 Thames Clyde Express relief from Glasgow Central to St Pancras was booked for steam south of Carlisle, as always there was no guarantee. That there were no other enthusiasts on Carlisle platform led me to believe I had been hoodwinked! O ye of little faith … arriving into the centre road just prior to the eight-coach train itself the welcome sight of Brit 70004 William Shakespeare hove into view. This locomotive, which when new was displayed at the South Bank in London as part of the 1951 Festival of Britain celebrations as well as working the prestige Golden Arrow services for many years, then took me on the 113-mile journey over Britain’s most scenic main line to Leeds, the timings of which I append below. It was a fitting finale, fortunately in wonderful sunny weather, to a wonderful weekend of steam.
Location
Time
Speed
Location
Time
Speed
Carlisle
00 00
Ais Gill
25 34
37½/63½
Petterill Bridge Jn
02 57
25
Garsdale
28 54
62½/58½
Durran Hill
03 58
35
Dent
32 15
60
Scotby
08 17
47
Dent Head
34 13
66½/67½
Low House Xing
14 03
60
Batty Moss
36 43
66½/71½
Armathwaite
15 40
56/60/56
Ribblehead
37 46
72½/80
Lazonby
21 10
66/67
Selside
39 43
77/73½
Little Salkeld
23 50
64/55½
Horton-in-R
41 31
75/80½
Langwathby
25 20
62/65½
Settle
47 12
Culgaith
28 42
64/61½
Settle Junction
03 26
63
New Biggin
3002
62/58½
Long Preston
05 28
60
Long Marton
33 18
55/57
Hellifield
06 46
55
Appleby West
36 56
Bell Busk
11 11
64½/65½
Ormside
04 12
57½/45
Gargrave
13 54
63
Griseburn
07 48
39/42
Delaneys Sdg
15 06
61/62
Crosby Garrett
10 58
44/53/47
Skipton North Jn
17 00
59
Kirkby Stephen
14 58
41/35½
Skipton
18 14
Mallerstang
20 10
39/42½
I was exhausted. I stayed aboard the train, falling into a deep stupor south of Derby, being shaken awake by station staff upon arriving into St Pancras just gone 7 p.m. Was it all worth it? I’ll leave you to make up your own minds with the following statistics from that final 1967 weekend of summer steam to mull over: twenty-six runs with twenty-two different locomotives (seven of which were required) – equalling 1,027 miles. Worth it? I should say so!
As regards the Settle-to-Carlisle line itself, during the 1970s the retrenchment-minded BR starved the route of investment – the condition of many viaducts and tunnels deteriorating accordingly. Using the ‘closure by stealth’ method often employed in those years, BR diverted freight services over the WCML and imposed draconian speed restrictions, causing increased journey times for the handful of trains still using it. In 1984 closure notices were posted. Many local authorities and rail enthusiasts joined forces, pointing out that BR was ignoring the S&C’s potential for tourism and its usefulness as a diversionary route during occasions when engineering work or mishaps occurred on the WCML. The resultant publicity together with special ‘Dalesrail’ trains run for ramblers led to a huge increase in usage and BR appointed an outside consultancy in 1988 to advise on a ‘possible sale’. The following year BR relented (the government’s Michael Portillo of Great British Railway Journeys TV series fame taking the credit) and repaired the entire line’s infrastructure ‘faults’, the route nowadays witnessing over a million passengers per year, together with forty freights per day.
10
RIDING YORKSHIRE’S NOCTURNAL MAIL TRAINS
WITH MOST PASSENGER services on the North Eastern Region during ‘normal’ hours having, by 1966, gone DL/DMU-operated, a dedicated band of sleep-deprived haulage bashers were, by default, obliged to lead a nocturnal existence in order to pursue their hobby. It was only through chance conversations with like-minded enthusiasts that I was to discover a wonderful six-hour six-locomotive series of connections involving the Calder Valley mail services. This route via Hebden and Sowerby bridges was the third (of twelve) crossings over the Pennines being completed by the Manchester & Leeds Railway in 1841 – a company which became the major constituent of the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway seven years later.
Although it had, by the summer of ’66, become documented in various publications that the 02 00 Sheffield Midland to Leeds City was worked by a Holbeck locomotive, some of us (I include myself) were unaware that by alighting at Normanton at 02 52 we could connect into the steam-worked (from there) 02 10 York to Manchester Victoria departure a mere eighteen minutes later. This westbound train, having been brought the 24½ miles from York by a ‘Long Pong’, exchanged traction at Normanton for a Low Moor-allocated B1, which took the train the 22 miles to Halifax where, upon reversal, a Newton Heath-allocated Black 5 would take over. Sounds good – but it was to get better! If you, having struggled to stay awake through the sleep-inducing lengthy station stops en route, alighted at the Calder Valley station of Hebden Bridge you could, having waited a mere twenty-three minutes (05 05 to 05 28), catch the opposite way working – the 04 20 Manchester Victoria to York.
Hebden Bridge, a picturesque village set at the bottom of a deep valley surrounded by a lofty ridge of hillsides, has over recent years often hit the headlines as a result of frequent flooding from the River Calder and was another station where I never ventured away from the platforms. In this instance you can’t blame me – it was the early hours of the morning! Overwhelmed by this regular volume of personal alighting there, the solitary railway porter’s standard expression was ‘you’ve all got rovers then?’, unaware that the more unscrupulous of us had filtered off down the approach road to refresh themselves with a pint of milk out of an unattended delivery. On several occasions we never made it that far, with mails and paper requirements sometimes taking longer than the booked allowances, timekeeping was not always adhered to. One of the more vigilant members of our entourage kept an eye on our progress and it was he who made the decision, kicking us awake or shaking our shoulders, to bale
out a station short at Sowerby Bridge. Unlike Hebden Bridge, here officialdom was very much in evidence and they always attempted to check our ticket validity. Needless to say numerous ticketless enthusiasts melted into the dawn darkness, miraculously reappearing upon the eastbound train’s arrival!
The 02 10 York to Manchester Victoria westbound Calder Valley mail train timings. This service was worked by a DL to Normanton and then steam (changing locomotives at Halifax) forward. Most journeys were made boarding at Normanton at 03 10 and alighting at Hebden Bridge at 05 05.